er to a separate wing of the Malone estate. It was a sprawling, be

xt. "Called back to base. Don't wait u

ilent, empty. T

look at you, Eliza. Hit the jackpot." The words were me

," her father, Earl,

iza aside, pressing a thin plastic

es welling up. "A little over fifty thousand dollars. If they hurt

two people's lives of hard work, offered up without a second thought. The flicker of warmt

le. It felt stiff, unused. "I'll be o

, nearly invisible lenses embedded in the smoke detectors and light fixtures. The house was bugged. Every room, that is, except the master bedroom and bathroom. A quick scan confirmed they were

ng, a soft knock

er tray. She looked to be in her late teens, with th

ipped and hostile. She set the tray down on a nea

ovided by the family files that Eliza researched and memorized before the wedding with Nyx's skillset. The file no

ytical. She didn't respond to the hostility

p, her eyes wide with disbelief. "

in your right. A common mistake with a piercing gun. Your sister, Meredith, suffers from mild rhinitis, wh

children, a game that fooled teachers, friends, even their parents sometimes. Their mother had sent her, the sweete

irl from a trailer park, had seen

face evaporated, replaced b

are you?"

. "Tell Meredith that the next time she wan

eat her dinner, as if she hadn't just pe

e rumors. Without another word, Genevieve

meone in the Malone family was looking at Eliza S